Hollywood made a power play last year to return to its Washington glory days, hiring an inside man as its new face in town — former Sen. Chris Dodd.

But in his first big test as Hollywood’s top lobbyist — the battle for a pair of anti-piracy bills backed by the entertainment industry — the Connecticut Democrat went up against a new Washington force driven by the power of the Web, not backroom connections — and now those bills are on life support.

While the entertainment industry sent high-powered lobbyists up to Capitol Hill for meetings, Internet companies out-maneuvered Dodd’s group by mobilizing its users on social media sites and in a mass blackout.

Dodd’s collision with the Internet revealed the strength of a new player in town: When the tech community taps into the energy of millions of Internet users, influence in Washington becomes an entirely different game.

But Dodd isn’t going down without a fight. He took to Fox News Thursday evening threatening that his industry might cut off campaign contributions to President Barack Obama’s reelection bid over the anti-piracy bill.

“Don’t make the false assumption here that because we did it in years past we’re going to do it this year,” Dodd told Fox News in an interview Thursday.

“This industry is watching very carefully. Who’s going to stand up for them when their job is at stake?” he said.

The Motion Picture Association of America declined to comment for this story.

“I think the content industry generally made a major mistake — which is not the first time they’ve made a mistake — which is to overreach,” said Dean Garfield, CEO of the Information Technology Industry Council and a former MPAA official.

“The Dodd thing may have made a difference, just that he brought a certain credibility to that overreach that may have led other members to not question underlying assumptions about whether other sectors mattered and whether the public would care.”

Still, added Garfield, whose trade group represents Google and other major tech companies, “My sense is that folks are always looking for someone to blame, and blaming this on Chris Dodd is probably factually inaccurate and wrongheaded.”

Though, Dodd’s already being blamed by lobbyists for underestimating the power of the tech industry.

“The MPAA is used to lining up their army against their opposing army, and whoever has the most and best lobbyists and best arguments usually wins,” a content industry lobbyist said. “We all were unprepared to fight counterinsurgency, and we got chewed up.”

Some lobbyists chalked the loss up to using an old-fashioned strategy.

A Hollywood insider said Dodd’s group was ill prepared to handle the battle waged by the cutting-edge tech industry.

“The MPAA today is the horse and buggy to the technology industry’s i-Pad,” that person said.

K-streeters working for the industry are still holding meetings with Senate offices in an attempt to salvage the bill.

Momentum for the movie industry-backed Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the PROTECT IP Act in the Senate appears to have stalled in the face of an unprecedented lobbying campaign from the technology industry. The campaign involved blackouts on popular websites like Wikipedia and Google collecting millions of signatures on a petition urging Congress to vote against the pending anti-piracy bills.

In the wake of the uproar, co-sponsors of the legislation abandoned support for the bill and others called for more debate. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) came out Thursday evening calling on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to shelve a scheduled Tuesday procedural vote.

And even if in the months to come the tech and content industry finds a compromise, Dodd will very likely be dinged for having to make big concessions.

This loss is exactly what MPAA was trying to avoid by hiring Dodd.

Dodd was brought on in an attempt to restore MPAA to its glory days when vaunted lobbyist Jack Valenti was at the helm. Over the past several years, MPAA was weakened with member companies taking a more active role on the Hill, shedding staff and floundering under the less flashy leadership of former Rep. Dan Glickman (D-Kan.).

Over the past year, Dodd has made significant personnel changes, bringing several of his former aides and confidants on the MPAA payroll.

And while MPAA got a big name with Dodd, industry insiders say he’s still acting the role of the statesman instead of chief strategist.

To be sure, the failure isn’t only Dodd’s fault. Several K-streeters pointed to MPAA member companies as not putting enough skin in the game. While Internet companies like Google and Wikipedia used their platform to create angst against the bill, MPAA members didn’t use their platforms on cable and the Internet to push back.

The force of the campaign waged by the tech industry and its allies “took everyone by surprise,” Garfield said. “I think the content sector took for granted that this would be your normal policy debate and that not only other sectors wouldn’t matter, but that the public wouldn’t care.”